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Diversity Book Club book lists

My book club is officially the “Community for Understanding and Hope Book Group co-sponsored by the Kirkwood Public Library.” We tend to shorten that to CFUH Book Group. But people outside of my suburb (and most people in it) don’t understand what that is, so at the suggestion of one of our members, I’ve taken to calling it the Diversity Book Club on my blog. We began in the aftermath of a tragic shooting at our city hall that made race issues hard to continue ignoring. We mostly read books about race in America.

Our annual potluck and book selection meeting was last night — our most fun and energetic meeting all year!

Here are the books we selected for the coming year:

How to Be Black by Baratunde Thurston

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines

Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock by David Margolick

Wake of the Wind by J. California Cooper

American Tapestry: The Story of Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama by Rachel L. Swarns

No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities by Will Allen

Telling Memories Among Southern Women by Susan Tucker

We had a hard time choosing. Here are the books we left on the table — maybe next year!

Beloved by Toni Morrison

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

The Children by David Halberstam

Black Women in White America edited by Gerda Lerner

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs

Rethinking Uncle Tom: The Political Thought of Harriet Beecher Stowe by W.B. Allen

I discussed Eddy Harris’s book “Native Stranger” with your group last year.
Just FYI, Barr Branch Library will be discussing his “Mississippi Solo” on Thursday evening, Nov. 1 at a nearby restaurant. Call (314) 771-7040 for more information.

So excited to have discovered your blog, Joy. I worked in the diversity field for 15 years at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. I did diversity training for professionals. I think it fantastic that you have this book club. Continue your good work!